by Alex Thurston Teju Cole analyzes the destruction of the shrines by analogy: Mali is premodern Europe; Mali is Afghanistan under the Taliban...Then comes the interesting analogy: Timbuktu is Mecca at the time of its conquest by the forces of the Prophet...

by Austin Dacey The Indian Penal Code was drafted in 1837 by the Indian Law Commission...In their commentaries, the commissioners observed that India is “pregnant with dangers” because of a susceptibility to “religious excitement” peculiar to Muslims and Hindus.

by Rachel Riederer It’s difficult for me to conceive of the memorization of scripture as even a mildly progressive act, let alone a radical one. But The Light in Her Eyes...sets out to prove that it is.

by Alex Thurston Should Sudan’s protesters topple President Omar al Bashir, I believe the media would get excited, but until they do, the Sudanese will remain, for the media, “marginal Arabs” or, as el Dahshan argues, Arab “villains.”

by Narges Bajoghli It's true that mass media have been used (and still are, in some contexts) as a means of social engineering...Nonetheless, it's imperative to remember that the state cannot control how people interpret what they see.

by Alex Thurston The MNLA and Ansar al Din have dominated the headlines about Mali this spring and summer. But how have other Malian Muslims reacted to the crisis in the north, and to the partial “Islamization” of the conflict by Ansar al Din?